Iron ore sheds almost 4 pct more — worst week since May 2016

Australian prospectors are scouring remote outback locations for new sources of iron ore to rival the big western lodes dominated by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton , spurred on by China's swelling appetite. Analysts expect most of Australia's iron ore to keep coming from Western Australia's Pilbara region, the world's single largest deposit, which is seen producing about 400 million tonnes this year.

The top 40 global mining companies are poised to break through the US$1 trillion asset mark this year, due to record levels of cash, property and equipment on balance sheets, says a new PwC report. In their report Mine 2011: The game has changed, PwC called the financial results of the top 40 "spectacular" as total revenues increased 32% to US$435 billion, breaking the $400 billion mark for the first time.

Profit margins for the world’s top 40 mining companies are below the historical peaks of 2006 and 2007 as higher costs outweigh […]

Wesgold Minerals has struck an option agreement with a polymetallic property in Colombia. According to Canadian Press, Wesgold has acquired an option to buy up to 51 percent of a property that hosts iron-oxide-copper-gold deposits: The Vancouver-based junior miner says it bought the option for an initial 11 per cent interest in the property, known as the Cordoba Property, from Minatura International LLC for a total cash cost of $4 million. The property consists of a mining concession contract and several mining claims covering 25,790 hectares, about 200 kilometres north of Medellin.

MarketWatch reports Rio Tinto PLC has halted export operations at one of the terminals at its Dampier iron ore port in Western Australia after a contract worker was killed when scaffolding he was working on fell into the water. An investigation by the police and Mines Department has been launched into the circumstances surrounding the accident, the Anglo-Australian company said in a statement Sunday. Rio Tinto hasn't had a fatality at its operations in the Pilbara, a region in Western Australia state that accounts for roughly 40% of the world's seaborne supplies of iron ore, since August 2003.

The Australian reports Tim Netscher the new chief executive of Gindalbie Metals took over after the miner in March announced a second cost blowout at its West Australian Karara joint venture. At the time, Netscher, 60, was working for Newmont Mining and thinking about swapping executive roles for non-executive positions, but the Gindalbie offer was too good to refuse. The multilingual Netscher, who speaks Afrikaans, Indonesian, German, Spanish and English, knows that Gindalbie's Karara magnetite project is at a crucial stage of development, but the mining industry veteran is not shy about a challenge.

Traditional Aboriginal owners in the Pilbara stand to receive more than $2 billion over 40 years under a watershed agreement with Rio Tinto that sets a new standard for negotiations between miners and indigenous Australia. Seven years in the making, the land-use agreement with five Aboriginal groups will allow about 40 new iron ore mines to proceed in an area of 70,000sqkm

The world's biggest consumer of steel is ready to raise the stakes. Steel demand in China is expected to rise by around 25% by the year 2015, to a huge 750 million metric tonnes. To ensure an adequate supply position, China is set to create three iron ore mining groups, with an output capacity of 100 million tonnes each. Six other groups with a capacity of 30 million tonnes are to be cobbled together to ensure steady supplies. Iron ore is the principal raw material used to make steel.

Black Iron reported initial assay results from its ongoing confirmation ("twin hole") and metallurgical diamond drill program at the Company's Shymanivske Iron Ore Project in Ukraine. The Company is encouraged by the results of the initial two holes highlighted by 20342-T that intersected 164 meters grading 32.1% iron, including 83 meters grading 33.8% iron. Matt Simpson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Black Iron, commented, "As anticipated, the assay results from the first two twin holes align well with the historical drilling logs for the Project."